The 420 Games is like the Olympics for stoners — take a look inside

Every participant wears the number 420 on their runner's bib.420 Games

There are some 2.5 million legal cannabis users in the US, which means the lazy, bong-ripping stoner we see in movies like "Pineapple Express" and almost any bromance starring Seth Rogen no longer represents the average smoker (if it ever did in the first place).

A few years ago, a snowboarding company executive and longtime toker named Jim McAlpine set out to create an event that would bring recreational and medicinal marijuana users together and show the world they're capable of more than eating pizza and binge-watching "South Park."

The 420 Games is just that — an Olympics-style athletics event where pot enthusiasts and their families compete in triathlons, obstacle courses, mountain bike races, golf tournaments, and the signature 4.20-mile run. It launched in San Francisco in 2014, and the company shared photos from that event with Tech Insider.

Here's what it's like to compete.

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From across the lawn of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the 420 Games look no different than any mainstream sports event.

Participants can take a drag from a vape pen or nibble on a marijuana edible before their event, but smoking is discouraged (and illegal in Golden Gate Park).

"The last thing I want is for people looking over to see a giant cloud of smoke," McAlpine says. "It doesn't breed what we're looking to build."

McAlpine hopes the 420 Games help reimagine the smoker stereotype. "I want the younger generation to have a role model for what a stoner is," he says. "I love Snoop [Dogg], but it doesn't have to be Snoop."